X-Men #1Review

Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel bring X-Men to Marvel NOW! with a tense conflict, a mysterious villain, and all the cleavage you can gawk at! Just kidding -- there is an all-female cast, but this isn’t Ame-Comi Girls by a longshot. No, this is a dense and entertaining X-book where the gender of the cast means little when it comes to Rogue saving the day with her super strength or Psylocke being the scariest psychic this side of the Marvel universe.

Jubilee is traveling towards the Jean Grey School with a little baby boy in tow. We don’t know much about him other than that he is, by far, the cutest thing ever. Even Doop seems to think so, which pretty much makes it fact. Of all the X-Men, the often rambunctious Jubilee is probably the worst candidate for parenthood, but her desire to give the baby the same chance she had when she joined the X-Men feels acceptably genuine and thoughtful.

Wood writes character first, focusing on chemistry and decisions instead of action set pieces and super powers. Not that there isn’t action and super powers. There’s a quick moment of tension that calls for both, but it’s dealt with in a constructive way that requires teamwork instead of punching, so it goes a long way to set up a unique tone for this series.

John Sublime -- the walking, talking bacteria-turned-handsome-man who can control people’s minds -- is the initial antagonist, but by the end of the book, he might be something else entirely. His character and the threat he presents is written with smarts. Wood wastes no time cutting through the usual crud, and by doing that, we can’t fall back on what we’ve seen before and must wait with bated breath to see where he’s taking us.

Coipel’s artwork is a real treat. He draws each character in a more realistic way than we’re used to seeing in a lot of comics, and that is greatly appreciated. The X-women aren’t here for titillation; they’re here to get the job done, and everything from their outfits to their body language says so. And man, does he draw one heck of a cute baby. Laura Martin does a superb job with her color work, enhancing Coipel’s designs and adding the perfect visual balance in order to set the tone for the story.

As far as negatives about the story go, it’s hard to find any. It looks great, it reads great, and it’ll leave you pumped for the next issue. Maybe that first page is too ambiguous or the last page is a bit out of left field, but those are more symptoms of this being the first installment than anything else.

Joshua writes for IGN. Follow him on Twitter or IGN, where you will get to watch him go through Green Lantern withdrawl symptoms.

The Verdict

Brian Wood starts X-Men off right by delivering an uncannily straightforward villain that brings together all of the leading X-ladies. Olivier Coipel makes a splash with his immaculate pencils that play to the nuances of the story instead of mindless cheesecake. This is a great first issue that should definitely be checked out.

Amazing

Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel start their all-female X-Men book off with a tense conflict and pitch-perfect artwork.